Way To Increase Your Rewards In Salah

Khutbah Opening

إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ، نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ، وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا، مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ، وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ، وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ، وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ.

أَمَّا بَعْد، فَإِنَّ أَصْدَقَ الْحَدِيثِ كِتَابُ اللَّهِ، وَأَحْسَنَ الْهَدْيِ هَدْيُ مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ، وَشَرَّ الْأُمُورِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا، وَكُلَّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ، وَكُلَّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ، وَكُلَّ ضَلَالَةٍ فِي النَّارِ.

Brothers and sisters in Islam, today our khutbah is about ways to increase your reward in salah — meaning two people praying in the masjid, perhaps even side by side, but one of them will get more reward than the other. And there are multiple ways to increase the reward in that salah, the salah which we're performing every day anyways.

1. Al-Khushu' — Humility and Presence of Heart

First and foremost, of course, is al-khushu' — which is to have humility, attentiveness, and presence of heart, meaning you're paying attention and focusing in your prayer. And Allah began Surah al-Mu'minun by saying:

So the scholars said Allah is describing those who have prospered, and the first description is that they're believers, then the first description of them being believers is that they're focused in their prayers.

And an-Nabi ﷺ expressed this very clearly in the hadith. An-Nabi ﷺ said:

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 796; graded as hasan)

That a servant will pray the salah, and the only part that will be recorded — the only part he will get reward for, that will be in his record — will be one-tenth of the salah. Then he says one-ninth, one-eighth, one-seventh, one-sixth, one-fifth, one-fourth, one-third, and then he said one-half. Meaning based on how much you focus, that's how much will be recorded for you.

Two people praying right next to each other, but one of them is completely gone somewhere else and the other person is focusing more. Even though they prayed the same length, the same prayer — but one of them is getting more reward because of his khushu'.

So it is upon us to try. And there is a shaitan whose job is to just distract you in salah in particular, so our job is to resist and to try to focus and bring ourselves back and focus. And the more you focus, the more reward you get for that salah.

2. Praying the Sunnah Prayers

The scholars then mentioned praying the sunan. If two people come to pray Dhuhr at the masjid — one of them prays all the sunan of Dhuhr before leaving and the other doesn't — it's easy to see which one will have greater reward. In Sahih Muslim, the Prophet ﷺ said that if you pray between night and day 12 rak'at — not from the fardah, voluntary prayers — except that Allah will build a palace in paradise for this person.

And we pray most of them: two before Fajr, then four before Dhuhr — this is the only one we need to add, because most people pray two rak'at before Dhuhr, but pray four before Dhuhr — two after Dhuhr, two after Maghrib, two after Isha. We pray most of them anyways; we just have to add the extra two before Dhuhr. You do that and Allah will build you a palace in Jannah.

3. Praying in Congregation

The third thing is to pray in congregation. In one hadith mentioned in Sahih Bukhari and Muslim, an-Nabi ﷺ mentioned that the prayer of a man in congregation is more rewarded over his prayer at home or in the marketplace by 25 times. Another hadith in Sahih Bukhari and Muslim says 27 degrees — meaning it is better in reward.

So the scholars commented on this. Imam an-Nawawi says both are authentic and the difference can be due to different times and situations. There is another explanation that says that 27 is the quantity — one of them is showing how many times better it is, how many times multiplied in reward, while the other hadith is mentioning the darajat — the degrees to which it's better. There's a difference between the two.

Other scholars, like Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani, said that it could be that 25 is for a baseline congregational prayer and 27 is for congregational prayer of a higher level — and the answer is yes, arriving early and having more khushu' can increase it. So it's saying that within congregational prayer, you can get more reward or less reward because of these other factors.

4. Arriving Early to the Masjid

Arriving early to the masjid — early before the salah — and no doubt there is a difference between someone who comes 10 or 15 minutes before the iqamah and the person who walks in with the iqamah. An-Nabi ﷺ said, as recorded in Sahih Bukhari and Muslim:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 615; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 437)

"If they knew what is in al-tahjir" — which means to come early to salah — "they would be racing each other for that." So there is a great reward for coming early to the masjid.

And there is another hadith that we all know where the Prophet ﷺ says that if you come to the masjid and you're waiting for salah, it is as if you are in salah — it counts. Just sitting and waiting, you are rewarded as if you are standing and praying in salah.

5. Walking to the Masjid

Walking to the masjid will get you more reward. In Sahih Muslim, an-Nabi ﷺ explains that when you walk to the masjid, one step will erase the sin and the other step will increase you in rank.

6. Performing Wudu Properly

Then we have performing the wudu. Wudu is an act of worship. Wudu isn't just getting wet — and sometimes people just get wet in two seconds and come back. Wudu also helps prepare you for khushu', because it is an act of worship itself. You do it slowly, you walk to the musalla slowly, it gets you in the mode for khushu' — as opposed to when you come running and rushing and then suddenly in a split second you're supposed to stand there and feel khushu' after you were running and clambering.

And an-Nabi ﷺ described in Sahih Muslim that when you perform wudu, your sins will come out — they will drip out of your body with the water, even underneath your nails, from every crevice. It is as if your sins are leaving your body because you performed wudu.

7. Reciting the Adhkar After Salah

Then we have the adhkar. An-Nabi ﷺ mentioned in the hadith that is famously known: 33 times سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ, الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ, and اللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ, and then you close it off with:

Just once — so that brings it to a hundred. That is authentic and that is your reward for the adhkar. Also authentically, an-Nabi ﷺ mentioned 25 times سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ, 25 times الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ, 25 times اللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ, and then 25 times لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ — so that brings it to a hundred. And also authentic: 10 times سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ, 10 times الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ, 10 times اللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ — it is not any less of a sunnah to say it 10 times. And this is the one that we teach our students here in the masjid, and we encourage you to teach it to your children because at regular speed it takes less than 25 seconds to do this. It is not less of a sunnah and it is not less in authenticity. So just less than 25 seconds and you can say 10 times each.

8. Praying at the Earliest Time

Then we have praying at the earliest of the time — praying on time. An-Nabi ﷺ, in Sahih Bukhari and Muslim, was asked:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 527; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 85)

"Which of the deeds is most beloved to Allah?" And the Prophet ﷺ said: "The prayer on its time." And that is more reward than the person who prays it a little late or prays it just before its time leaves.

9. Lengthening the Salah

Then — lengthening your recitation, your bowing, your prostration, lengthening the salah itself. You can imagine if someone prays in 40 seconds and the person next to them prays in 3 minutes — spending a longer time with Allah, slowing their time with their recitation, making longer sujood.

And the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 482)

"The closest that a servant will ever be to his Lord is while in prostration — so make a lot of du'a." So make a lot of du'a in your sujood, as it increases you in closeness to your Lord and it increases you in reward.

10. Sincerity of Intention

And of course, there is not a deed or an action in Islam except that the intention will either increase, decrease, or even nullify it based on the intention. And so with salah, of course, the intention is to pray to Allah — you're not showing off to people, you're not trying to show your presence, that you're there at that prayer, or anything else. And if the shaitan creeps in and tries to tell you that people see you at the masjid or what have you, you can stop right then and there and renew your intention.

With that, I say what I have said and I ask Allah for His forgiveness for myself and for you all from all sins — so seek His forgiveness, for indeed those who ask for His forgiveness shall prosper.

Second Part of the Khutbah

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of all the worlds, and may prayers and peace be upon His noble Messenger, and upon his family and all his companions. Amma ba'd:

11. Physically Praying Like the Prophet ﷺ

There is something that if you do it correctly you get more reward — and for some reason this is the most marginalized and ignored, even though it is so simple. And that is to physically pray like the Prophet ﷺ. An-Nabi ﷺ said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 631)

"Pray as you have seen me pray." Now, if in the tashahhud you don't sit the same way the Prophet ﷺ sat, your salah is still valid — there is no disagreement amongst the scholars on that. But if you sit physically like the Prophet ﷺ, you place your hands physically like the Prophet ﷺ placed his hands, you would get greater reward for that salah. And this is the one that most people overlook, and they tell you things like "khalas, however you sit, Allah doesn't care."

SubhanAllah — if you worked at a company and at the end of the month they showed you a stack of money and said "this would have been your bonus but you didn't get it," and you said "okay, what can I do to get this bonus next month?" — and they say "sit in a particular way at your desk and keep your mouth at a particular distance, and sitting that way will get you this extra bonus" — no arguments, no discussion, we got it — straighter than anything. But when it comes to salah, "khalas, Allah accepts."

This is why in our masjid when we do the salah certification we're teaching the kids the proper way to sit. Sometimes you meet teenagers and they can't sit the proper way when we teach them — why? Because their bones settled in that wrong position, khalas, they got used to it.

I wasn't going to mention this, but I'll mention it. I always wanted to have an idea of — when the people are in salah — what's the percentage of those who sit properly in the tashahhud? I said I'll never know because I'm always in salah with them. But one time I was reviewing the cameras — it was a Dhuhr prayer — I counted 22 musallimeen, and only 11 were sitting properly. 50%. And even if we showed somebody, especially when you're older, khalas, your bones have settled — show them the right way and it's so uncomfortable now.

So that's why, especially for the youth — don't blow this opportunity. Learn to automatically sit the proper way. You get that reward for every salah, an extra reward. Then multiply that by 65 years — however long Allah allows you to live in His obedience — look at the reward multiplying.

12. Not Looking Around During Salah

And not looking around — because every time you look around, the Prophet ﷺ described it as a theft. The shaitan is stealing from your salah. Every time you look away, your reward decreases.

Additional Ways to Beautify the Salah

With that, the things that can beautify the salah include: proper pronunciation and tajweed in recitation, facing the qiblah, dressing properly, and trying to understand the meanings of what you recite so that your heart engages more deeply in the salah.

Closing Reminder

We are engaged in this salah anyways — so if maybe 2 or 3 of these points resonated with you, and that increases your reward this much per salah, multiplied by 5 times a day, multiplied by how many years Allah allows us to live — the reward is immense.

With that, we ask Allah to make us of those who recognize the truth as clear truth and follow the best of it, and to make us of those who recognize falsehood as clear falsehood and abstain from it.